On 6 and 7 April 2022, the EuComMeet project’s first General Assembly took place at Santa Chiara Lab in Siena, Italy.
Hosted by the University of Siena, it has been a great opportunity for more than 30 participants representing all partners from Italy, Spain, France, Finland, Ireland, Poland, Germany and Belgium, to meet in person for the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic period.
‘’The aim of the project? To bring the people to deliberation and, at the same time, to bring deliberation to the people. Make easier for the people to have access to deliberation by concretely build up an online participatory space’’. These are the introductory words of the professor Pierangelo Isernia (University of Siena), coordinator of the project.
The assembly was structured in such a way that each Work Package leader had the chance to present the objectives achieved so far and the activities in progress. One topic was particularly addressed, as it represented the achievement of a very specific deliverable: the elaboration of the survey questionnaire with more than 340 valid answers, among national, regional and local Spanish representatives, trying to bear in mind which characteristics make deliberative events more attractive to political elites. Joan Font (CSIC), Principal Investigator of the team in charge commented: “The results show that online events, those that include politicians as participants and whose proposals are non-mandatory are clearly preferred, among them”. This is of utmost importance in view of a very significant step: the launch of the first platform prototype in November 2022, in the schools and universities of the ten already selected cities.
During the two days meeting, relevant arguments about the status of deliverables implementation came out. Partners got updated on respective targets and tools, addressing the theoretical research hypothesis and the scientific framework, as well as technical challenges related to automated and human moderation of the online platform, and other relevant and innovative ICT instruments. In addition, two media training pill sessions have been organised remotely by inviting two European communication officers from the European Committee of the Regions and Directorate General Research who gave partners useful tips on how to interact with institutions and described which are the most suitable methods for being successful communicators of research results.
The assembly ended by agreeing to meet again in Brussels in early June 2022. If interested to be in contact with the EuComMeet Experts team and receive more details about the project, you are kindly invited to write an e-mail to info@tour4eu.eu or subscribe to the newsletter.